Documentum's main product creates and manages an actual repository, a server-based system used to store corporate documents to allow companywide access and meet regulatory requirements.

Even companies that have adopted content management plans typically put only a small portion of their data in a server-based repository, Documentum President Dave DeWalt said. Combining real and virtual repositories allows businesses to take a more comprehensive approach to content management, he said.

"Customers may have hundreds of thousands of Web sites, files systems and other resources," DeWalt said. "This product creates a unified view of all those data sources, so you know where things are. You can't do anything with it until you know where it is. It's a big problem for a lot of companies--they don't know what they have sitting around."

Documentum will sell the AskOnce technology as Documentum Virtual Repository. It will be offered next month in three ways: as a stand-alone product; as a suite with management and work flow tools; and integrated with Documentum's main enterprise content management product.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Documentum is one of the leading players in the fast-growing market for content management software. The niche has seen a wave of acquisitions in the past year, as companies seek to add features such as collaboration tools and instant messaging to their products.